Thanks so much for reading about these great authors. In case you're wondering who I am, I write books for teens. I'm the author of the Latina YA novel, GRAFFITI GIRL (MTV Books, May 2007) a Double RITA 2008 finalist, and the Contemporary Paranormal YA, INVISIBLE TOUCH (MTV Books, September 2008). Please scroll down for more information, and I hope you enjoy the interviews.
Words of an Author with Sara Rosett
Hello Sara, it's great to have you back to chat! Please tell us about your latest novel, Getting Away is Deadly.
Sara: In Getting Away is Deadly (Kensington, April 2008), Ellie Avery joins her pilot husband on a training trip to Washington D.C. She wants a little r&r, but her vacation turns deadly when she witnesses a murder in the Metro.
Could you share a bit about the main character of your book and what makes her unique?
Sara: Ellie is a military spouse and a mom. She’s an “every woman” character who gets mixed up in mysteries, so she has to use her intelligence and her unique knowledge as a military insider to solve the mystery. She’s also a new mom and facing parenting challenges that all parents struggle with. In Getting Away, her daughter is visiting the grandparents to give Ellie and Mitch some time alone before the birth of their next child. Ellie has a hard time enjoying her time away because she also feels guilty about not being with Livvy and for enjoying herself. Livvy’s very content and doesn’t miss mom and dad at all and that adds to Ellie’s angst.
How did the idea for this novel come about?
Sara: I accompanied my husband, who is a military pilot, on a trip very much like the one described in the book, except there was no murder on my trip! He went to class for a week and I played tourist, visiting all the sights. I was waiting for a Metro train when I began to think about what a dangerous place the platforms were: there’s no guardrail and people wait right at the edge of the platform. The mystery writer in me thought, “What a great place for a murder…”
Great! What do you hope readers will gain from reading this novel?
Sara: First, I hope they enjoy the ride, the puzzle of the mystery and touring some of D.C.’s monuments and museums. I also hope it shows that even when military families go to great places, usually someone in the family is working. Even if it’s a vacation, it’s still a working vacation. Motherhood is also a theme of my books, so this one explores moms taking a break and the conflicting feelings they have when they go away for a bit on their own.
Thanks for sharing, Sara. Would you like to close with a novel you highly recommend and why?
Sara: If you like mom lit mysteries, I’d recommend Ayelet Waldman’s Mommy Track mysteries. They’re terrific.
***
Born and raised in Amarillo, Texas, Sara Rosett has always loved to curl up with a good book. Her marriage to an Air Force pilot has taken her to central and southern California, Texas, Washington state, Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Maryland. Sara has worked as a credit processor, a reporter for two Air Force base newspapers, and a researcher and writer for the Citizen Ambassador Program of People to People International. Currently, Sara and her family live in Maryland where she combines full-time parenting with writing. Her work appeared in Chicken Soup for the Military Wife’s Soul, Simple Pleasures of Friendship, Simple Pleasures of the Kitchen Romantic Times Mystery Scene, Mystery Readers Journal, The Writer, and Georgia Magazine. Please visit her website, www.sararosett.com.
Words of an Author with Lisa McMann
Hello Lisa, thanks for chatting! Could you please tell us a little about your writing background and how you made your first sale?
Lisa: I wanted to be a writer since I was in fourth grade. I had some great key teachers as well as high school professors who encouraged me. But I didn’t start writing seriously until 2002, the year my kids were old enough to bake a frozen pizza all on their own (a momentous occasion, indeed). Their independence was a big factor in my ability to concentrate on writing again.
My first sale, meaning the first publication that actually paid me something? That would have to be Literary Mama for a memoir called “When You’re Ten,” something I penned when reflecting on my son growing up – I had promised him he could learn how to shoot a gun when he was ten. And then suddenly, he was ten, Columbine had just happened, and I wasn’t ready to see him do that (even though I was ten when I first shot a gun). It’s in a wonderful print anthology called Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined, which I believe is still available from Seal Press.
Readers and writers often like to get a behind the scenes peek of an author's writing routine. It would be great if you could please share your typical writing day schedule.
Lisa: A typical writing day starts with an ice cold Diet Coke and a run-through of email. Once my kids are ready for school and out the door, I get right down to work. Sometimes I’ll read over what I wrote yesterday if I need it to refresh my memory, but I don’t usually edit what I wrote yesterday unless I’m stuck on what comes next. Most often I am aching to keep writing the rough draft and I’ll know what comes next. I don’t want to forget it, so I’ll write furiously from about 8:30 until 3:00. I take a break every now and then to stretch, grab a bite to eat, or sit outside and puzzle over an idea that isn’t quite working right, and then I’ll jump back in again. Once 3:00 hits, I finish the scene I’m on, and then my kids get home from school, so it’s time to put my mom hat on. If I’m really involved in a crucial part of the story, I may go back to it later in the evening, but most often I call it a day.
Please tell us about your novel WAKE (which just happened to hit the NYT Bestsellers list!) and what we can expect from your characters.
Lisa: WAKE is my debut novel. It came out March 4 with Simon Pulse. Seventeen-year-old Janie gets sucked into other people’s dreams. She can’t stop it, can’t tell anybody about it or they’d think she’s a freak, and so Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn’t want and can’t control. Then she gets sucked into the nightmare of a mysterious guy named Cabe, and for the first time Janie isn’t just an onlooker in someone else’s dream, she is a participant.
Sounds so great, Lisa! What's up next? Do you have another project in the works? If so, please tell us about it.
Lisa: Next up is the sequel to WAKE. It’s called FADE, and it comes out in February, 2009.
Thank you again, Lisa! I wish you the best with WAKE and FADE. Would you like to close with a writing tip?
Lisa: Absolutely. Keep a notepad next to your bed. As tired as you may be when you awake in the middle of the night from a weird dream, rouse yourself enough to write it down. Your mind is at it’s most creative when you’re dreaming. You’ll most certainly get some ideas that way.
Thanks so much for inviting me to your place!
***
Lisa McMann is the author of WAKE and its upcoming sequel, FADE (February, 2009).
She was born and raised in Michigan and has been a blueberry picker, bindery worker, bookseller, and Realtor. In 2004, Lisa and her family moved to the Phoenix area and now she writes from a green chair overlooking the Superstition Mountains.
Sometimes she wears a cowboy hat.
She’s not really a cowboy.
She just likes hats.
Many of Lisa’s short stories are published online and in print, like the one about homelessness. It won a cool Templeton award. Visit her at her website at www.lisamcmann.com. There you’ll find links to her MySpace, Facebook, and blog pages.
Words of an Author with Megan Crane
Hello Megan, thanks so much for agreeing to chat! Please tell us about your latest novel.
Megan: My latest novel is called Names My Sisters Call Me (5 Spot: out now!). Here's the back cover:
Courtney, Norah and Raine Cassel are about as different as three sisters can get. Norah, the oldest, is a typical Type A obsessive who believes there is a right way and a wrong way to do everything. She maintains a constantly-updated spreadsheet of slights and alliances, and six years later has not forgiven Raine, their middle sister, for ruining her wedding day.
Raine is Norah’s opposite – wild child, performance artist, follow-your-bliss hippie chick who fled to California after the wedding fiasco. The only thing the two sisters have in common is their ability to drive Courtney, their youngest sister, crazy.
When Courtney’s long time boyfriend proposes, she decides it’s finally time to call a family truce and bring the three sisters together. After all, they’re all grown ups now, right? But it turns out that family ghosts aren’t easily vanquished, and neither are first loves. Reconnecting the sisters also means re-examining every choice Courtney has made in the last six years, right down to the man she’s about to marry.
Could you share a bit about the main character of your book and what makes her unique?
Megan: Courtney has a very cool job: she plays the cello in a major (made up!) symphony in Philadelphia.
How did the idea for this novel come about?
Megan: I wanted to write about the difference between first love and true love. And then one day I saw a woman crossing a street with a cello. And somehow that turned into three sisters, secrets, and family drama.
It's amazing what one image can inspire! What do you hope readers will gain from reading this novel?
Megan: I hope they'll think a bit about the roles they play in their own family dramas, and maybe try to recast those old roles if they don't fit anymore.
Thanks for sharing, Megan! Best of luck with Names My Sister Calls Me. Would you like to close with a novel you highly recommend and why?
Megan: Jane Porter has a new book coming out in May called Mrs. Perfect that I just adored. It's intense and sometimes harrowing and very, very cathartic. I loved it.
***
Megan Crane is a New Jersey native who graduated from Vassar and got her MA and PhD in literature from the University of York in England. She is the author of Everyone Else’s Girl, English as a Second Language and Frenemies. She lives in Los Angeles. Visit her website at www.megancrane.com.
Words of an Author with Sara Hantz
Hello, Sara, good to have you here to chat! Could you please tell us a little about your writing background and how you made your first sale?
Sara: I spent many years in academia, so before writing fiction I wrote text books, academic papers and reports. About four years ago I decided to try writing fiction, and I realized this was what I wanted to do full time. I wish I’d done it sooner!
I started off writing chick-lit and hen-lit, then in November 2005 I decided to try a teen-lit. After writing 3 chapters I did what you’re not meant to do and started to send it to agents, to test the water. Ooops!!! That’ll teach me. The story seemed to hit the right nerve because straight away five agents asked for the full manuscript and six for partials. I sent the partials and said to those requesting the full that it still needed some tweaking (aka writing) and I’d send when ready. In only a few days one of the agents had read the partial and asked for the full.
I managed to finish the full by January and send to all those who requested it….. most of them asked for it by email which was an added bonus….. 10 days later the agent I mentioned above phoned and offered representation. I said yes pretty much straight away. By February I’d done some revisions for my agent and she sent it out to lots of publishers. Andrew, the editor from Flux, phoned asking if I’d be prepared to do some revisions. I said yes (obviously!!!) and he sent me a very detailed letter. I did them. He was happy and then asked me to do some more, saying if they were ok he’d take it to the Acquisitions Committee. He took it to the Committee and they offered me a contract. The title changed to The Second Virginity of Suzy Green.
Readers and writers often like to get a behind the scenes peek of an author's writing routine. It would be great if you could please share your typical writing day schedule.
Sara: I follow the ‘little and often’ principle. I always have my current manuscript open on the PC and dip in and out of it all day long. I have a very short attention span and find myself getting distracted by other things, yet some how I manage to produce the work – I suspect there are fairies at the bottom of the garden who come out at night and do some for me.
Now why does that short attention trait sound familar to me?? *wink* Please tell us about your novel, The Second Virginity of Suzy Green, and what we can expect from your characters.
Sara: The Second Virginity of Suzy Green, released by Flux on September 1st 2007, is about a troubled teen who moves to a different town to make a fresh start. She even joins the virginity club, despite not technically qualifying. But that’s ok, because nobody in town knows the truth… until her ex shows up.
Can't wait to read it, Sara! What's up next? Do you have another project in the works? If so, please tell us about it.
Sara: My agent is currently selling my book about a kick boxing champion who acts as a stunt girl for a rebellious teen movie star.
Thank you again, Sara, for sharing with us. I wish you the best with your debut. Would you like to close with a writing tip?
Sara: Writers get rejected all the time, so when you receive one hang on in there. Very often rejections don’t mean you have no talent, just that your manuscript isn’t right for them at that particular time. I believe there’s an element of luck involved in all sales. Take The Second Virginity of Suzy Green as an example. It landed on the editor’s desk just as he was thinking about broadening their offering to include books set overseas. Right place, right time!
Sara Hantz started writing when she ran out of degrees to study and decided it was much more fun to make things up than to comment on dry academics. Born in England, she moved to New Zealand a few years ago. The Second Virginity of Suzy Green is Sara's first novel. Visit her website, www.SaraHantz.com
Words of an Author with Wendy Tokunaga
Hello Wendy, thanks for agreeing to chat. Could you please tell us a little about your writing background and how you made your first sale?
Wendy: MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT (St. Martin’s Griffin) is my debut novel, but is actually the fifth I have written. For me to get a major publishing deal it took over ten years of trying, along with getting hundreds and hundreds of rejections from agents. I did win an award in the Writer’s Digest Best Self-Published Book Awards in 2002 for my novel NO KIDDING, but that didn’t help much in getting notice from agents. Along the way I published some short stories in small journals and wrote a couple of children’s non-fiction books as works for hire (flat fee, no royalties). So this has been a long road (including finally getting an agent who couldn’t sell book number three or four, then him dumping me). I decided that maybe out of these five novels I’d written I could at least get an MFA in Creative Writing. So I applied to grad schools, decided on the University of San Francisco, and right when I started in Summer 2006 I got my great agent Marly Rusoff and she got me a two-book deal with St. Martin’s about eight weeks later.
Readers and writers often like to get a behind the scenes peek of an author's writing routine. It would be great if you could please share your typical writing day schedule.
Wendy: I write from a home office. I am in graduate school right now so I am juggling all that goes along with that with my other writing. Luckily I am doing both full time, but life is hectic as we all know so things can get crazy. I write at all different times of the day, but usually stop by the evening unless I become really obsessed with something and I want to keep tweaking.
Please tell us about your novel, MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT, and what we can expect from your characters.
Wendy: In MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT (St. Martin’s Griffin, Available Now) meet you’ll meet thirty-year-old Midori Saito, whose dream seems about to come true. A strong independent streak has always made her feel like a stranger in a strange land in her native Japan, but now she’s embarking on a new life in San Francisco. She’s about to marry Kevin, the perfect American man—six feet tall, with curly hair the color of marmalade. Unlike a Japanese guy who’d demand she be a housewife, Kevin doesn’t mind if Midori follows her dream of becoming a master pastry chef. Her life is turning out as exquisitely as a Caramelized Apple Tart with Crème Fraiche, until Kevin dumps her at their engagement party in favor of his blonde, ex-fiancée, whom Midori never even knew existed.
Now Midori is not only on her own—with just a smattering of fractured English in her repertoire—she’s entered the U.S. on a fiancée visa that will expire in sixty days. Unable to face the humiliation of telling her parents she’s been dumped, and not wanting to give up on her American dream, Midori realizes she’s “up the creek without a saddle.” Her only hope is new acquaintance Shinji, 30, who long ago escaped Japan after a family tragedy, is a successful San Francisco graphic artist and amateur moon gazer, and who lets her share his apartment as a platonic roommate.
Soon Midori finds herself working at an under-the-table hostess job at an unsavory Japanese karaoke bar, making (and eating) way too many desserts, meeting a charming and handsome chef with his own restaurant who may be too good to be true, and trying to uncover the secret behind a mysterious bar hostess who looks strangely familiar. But Midori’s willing to endure almost anything to hang on to her American dream, and she just might find that the love she’s been searching for far and wide is a whole lot closer than she thinks.
Sounds like a great read! What's up next? Do you have another project in the works? If so, please tell us about it.
Wendy: I’ve just completed my second book and sent it to the publisher. Here’s a brief description: After receiving a puzzling phone call and a box full of mysteries, 33-year-old fledgling singer Celeste Duncan is off to Japan to search for a long, lost relative who could hold the key to the identity of the father she never knew. Lost in translation, she stumbles head first into a weird, wonderful world where nothing is quite as it seems; a land of gaijin worshippers, karaoke boxes, sushi fortune tellers, and unbearably perky TV stars. But when she learns to sing a Japanese song called “The Wishing Star” Celeste finds herself on a path to finding real love, understanding the true meaning of family and, most of all, discovering her own voice.
Thanks so much for sharing, Wendy! I wish you the best with your writing career. Would you like to close with a writing tip?
Wendy: I think one of the most important thing writers can do is keep improving their craft. And one way of helping this along is to find trusted readers who will give the writer honest, intelligent, and constructive feedback.
***
Wendy Nelson Tokunaga was born and raised in San Francisco. She attended Lowell High School and San Francisco State University, and is now finishing up her MFA in Writing at University of San Francisco. Her short stories have appeared in The Abiko Literary Quarterly Review, The Plaza, and Yomimono among others.
She is the author of the self-published novel, No Kidding, which won an award in the Mainstream/Literary Fiction category of the Writer’s Digest Best Self-Published Book Awards in 2002, and MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT, published in September 2007 by St. Martin’s Griffin. MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT is a comic, cross-cultural novel, which tells the story of fresh-from-Japan Midori Saito, who finds herself lost in translation in San Francisco as she searches for her American Dream and the perfect dessert, and also is in a constant battle to improve her English and better learn her “idiotmatic” expressions.
Tokunaga lives by the ocean thirty miles south of San Francisco with her Osaka-born surfer-dude husband, Manabu Tokunaga and their Burmese cat named Meow. Drawing on her extensive experience in studying the Japanese language and culture; living, working and playing in Japan, and her cross-cultural marriage, she explores the theme of why some people feel the need to trade their native culture for a new one. Visit her website, www.wendynelsontokunaga.com.
Words of an Author with E. Lockhart
Hello E, it's so great to have you back! Please tell us about your latest novel.
E: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks came out March 25th from Hyperion. It's about a girl who infiltrates her older boyfriend's all-male secret society at an elite boarding school. There are pranks. There are secret late-night adventures. There is romance. And there are lots of basset hounds.
I also had a chance to read an advanced copy--absolutely loved it! What was the most difficult part of writing this novel?
E: The pranks. Frankie dreams up a series of increasingly grandiose pranks -- "The Library Lady," "The Doggies in the Window," "The Abduction of the Guppy" and so forth -- and I had to think them up myself!
I am a lot less inventive and nefarious than Frankie.
haha! Could you tell us what type of promotion you or your publisher are doing for your novel?
E; The main thing Hyperion did was a pre-publication tour to meet booksellers, including chain stores and independents, plus a big bookseller conference. I think it was a great thing for the book. When reviews were good, they took out some ads. And I'm doing approximately 8,000 online interviews, which is fun! But I am not touring until May -- and then it is technically for How to Be Bad, which is a novel I co-wrote with Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski that comes out May 6. But I'll be signing Disreputable History as well.
Wow, sounds fantastic! Please list one similarity and one difference between yourself and your main character.
E: Frankie hates to be underestimated.
Me, too.
Frankie is possibly a criminal mastermind.
Me, not so much.
Thank you again for sharing, E, could you tell us one of your favorite lines from the book?
E: From a description of the Alabaster Preparatory Academy campus:
Many of the buildings, built in the late nineteenth century, were connected by steam tunnels -- utility tunnels intended for the maintenacne of heating pipes that run underneath the ground. These tunnels were locked, and student access to them was explicitly forbidden by the administration. But there wouldn't be a story here if there weren't a way of getting in.
Thanks for having me on your blog, Kelly!
***
E. Lockhart is the author of The Boyfriend List and its sequel, The Boy Book; Fly on the Wall; Dramarama; and the upcoming How to Be Bad, co-written with Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski. In stores March 25th is The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. Visit her on the web at www.theboyfriendlist.com -- and soon (once the new web design is finished) at www.e-lockhart.com.
The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit
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